TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY THREE
(I/C)
“According to my map and what Brendon saw Elf-friend,” Kovid mused, “this chimney may indeed bring us to the second floor garden. We must prepare ourselves as Guardians are certainly a possibility.”
Reclaiming his pack and readying for the proper climb, Brendon suggested, “The garden might be the best place to warm up and if we’re lucky we might find food or something we could use.”
"The garden has Guardians in it, du Lac,” Wyn answered with a frown. “That would be a bad idea right now."
“Ah…shit,” Brendon sighed. “Could the leaves be an ingredient in the teleportation potion? Or something that is used to feed the slime.”
“Let's just try to get up de chimney. If dere be no one in de goblin room, maybe we will have time to check out the alchemy lab.” Wyn ducked down and looked up the chimney with a frown. “Can you open de latch in the chimney?"
"Arriba?!? Arriba el chimney?” Abraxas asked incredulously.
“That’s the plan, Doc.”
Giving a lopsided grin, the Fighter shrugged and replied, “H'okay. If that's our play, let's at least be smart and rapido. Mas rapido."
“Ughhhhhh climbing. Why did we have to choose climbing?” Lyra took a deep sigh and glanced back, rubbing her butt and frowning. “I’ll go sec..er…third.”
“Let me go first and open the latch, affix the rope, then come back down.”
“Sound good, Brendon,” Kovid assured the Scout. “I’ll go up first then after you’ve returned, make sure that nothing is waiting for us. But Abraxas was right, we all go up fast, fast, fast.”
"If we see los Guardians,” the Fighter asserted, “perhaps Señora Lyrka can use her Turns Deadites on them right away."
“Groovy!” she replied.
Brendon once again hoisted himself up the chimney, finding foot and toe holds the higher he went (<Climb, Red 44), until he got to the slanted area and progress sped up. Once at the grating, he braced his feet on the opposite sides of the chimney walls, took out his prybar, and by the light of the spell enchanted rope around his wrist, worked the ancient and crusted pins free (=Open Door/Grate, +1 tool, Red 3), catching them as they popped out and sliding them into his cloak lining. He then used his shoulder and forced the grate up, and then climbed through. It was another few feet to get to a cold and very large fireplace. The chimney continued up from here, but the Scout moved the numerous dead leaves aside and looked around. The roof seemed roofless, but was not; instead it sported a red tinged glass ceiling some 20’ above. There were lots and lots of weedy plants that had overrun the place. He listened and could faintly hear some marching sounds, rhythmically south of where he was, but there were no immediate threats. Satisfied, he lowered himself back to the grating, tied his rope to it, and let it slither down, following it back down to the Dining Room where he filled the group in on what to expect.
However, he was dismayed to see that Wyn had taken one of the loose chairs from around the table and was trying to fit it under the door handle. “Stop! Don’t block the door,” he hissed.
“Why not?” Wyn asked. “It will stop dem from coming in, no?”
Brendon shook his head. “This room should appear as a hiding spot not as anything else. Jamming the door and then not finding anyone in here WILL cause them to search harder and invariably, to look up the chimney.”
The group thought about it and then nodded, returning the chair to the table. “Leave your packs here,” Abraxas suggested, “And we can tie it to the rope, pull it up afterwards, easier for all.”
“Good idea,” Lannis smiled, “When it comes to lifting and lowering things, you’re the expert.”
“I’ll go last,” the Fighter sighed, “Don’t worry.”
Brendon shook his head. “Let me. I can climb without the rope, Doc . I have the cloak to help hide me. And I’ll keep an ear out, if need be I can drink the invisibility potion.”
Once the group was ready, Kovid had Abraxas tie his pack to the rope, dangled the lantern from his belt, and using the rope, proceeded to climb (<Climb, +15% rope, Yellow 61), forcing his way up and then through the slanted area. Once up top he pulled his pack up, and returned the rope to the chimney, being quiet while he waited to help the next party member up.
Wyn was quick to follow (<Climb, +15% rope, Orange 29) and then Lyra (<Climb, +15%, White 45), the Cleric panting as she finally made the top. Packs followed and the group was nervous. Meanwhile Brendon was near the door, listening to verify that none of the orcs or hobgoblins had decided to come check out this room yet. Currently, the group’s luck was holding but the process was taking some time.
Lannis made his way up the chimney (<Climb, +15% rope, Pink 41), the Magic User’s limbs shaking, his strength mostly spent from his long day. It was odd to see him and his double make the climb together and Kovid and Wyn weren’t sure who to help up, pulling both of the Lannis’ to the fireplace. “I still hate that spell,” Lyra muttered.
Abraxas was next, giving the Scout a raised eyebrow and getting a nod in return. The fighter had (<Climb, +15% rope, Blue 04) absolutely no problem making the ascent and that cleared the way for Brendon to wrap it up. Once up top, the Scout lowered the grate once more in place and pushed the pins through the holes, but did so loosely so that should the group need to go this way again, they could do it easily but a casual inspection would show nothing was amiss.
As for the room itself, with the lantern and the light spell available, they were able to make a better look, staying near the fireplace and its stone overhang for safety, cognizant of the marching (Guardians?) noises coming from the south side of the chamber.
Many of the plants were pretty large and obscured visibility. There were a number of the pale white roses similar to what we had seen outside around the Castle. “Stay away from them,” Lannis pointed. “Tried to drink my blood.”
The roses were situated in the center area of the room, and as for the room, we could only see the east and north wall, the doorway distant and barely visible through the plants. There was a path through the room, cobblestones set in the floor, but most of it was overgrown as well. What was disconcerting were the tall thorny plants. About Kovid’s height, they had a sickly green looking leaves and a crazy amount of thorny brown branches encircling their tops. There were maybe 5 of them visible to the group in the little amount of the room they could see.
Finally there was an underlying scent of rot and decay, and loose leaves were placed in small piles here and there.
Time now is Day 7, 6:10 PM
(OOC)
5 minutes on Mirror Image, 60 minutes on the light spell. Group is getting tired. Right now nothing has noted or bothered with the group. For now. What’s the plan?
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